ā€œI love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.ā€ – Douglas Adams

GTD Journey: Moving from Nirvana to Microsoft To Do

After several false starts the company I work for is finally migrating to Microsoft 🄳. No more sync issues between Google Calendar and Outlook for me (yay!).

I remember taking a quick look at Microsoft To Do last year and liked its simplicity, but because I only had one account I thought it was cumbersome to deal with personal and work stuff all together in one app. One of the reasons I liked Nirvana was the global area filter, so I could switch from personal to work mode, and keep a minimal number of context tags that were shared between personal/work .

Now I have 2 Microsoft accounts so things can be organized separatedly. I can switch from one to the other using the Microsoft To Do desktop app, both on my personal and work computers. I also have 2 mobile phones, one linked to my personal account and the other linked to my work account.

The 2 setups are similar, I’ll get into more detail about my personal one.

Setting it up

First, I read the Official GTD Guide for Microsoft To Do to figure out the best way to set up projects and next actions. As I wrote before I am letting go of the need to have in-built links betweens next actions and projects, so my personal setup looks like this:

Groups of Lists:

Other Lists:

Using hashtags to identify Projects

In MS To Do we can use hashtags as a way to search similar items. So for example, in my projects list I have a keyword to identify that project and so I can use that same hashtag on my next actions. Clicking on a hashtag will show all related items with it.

It is a loose way of linking projects to next actions and if have a good next action description, I wouldn’t even need the hashtag, because I could just search ā€œcar insuranceā€ and find what I’m looking for. But I like having the hashtags, specially for bigger projects.

Sharing Lists

I shared some lists between my personal and work accounts so that if I update one the chages will be reflected in both accounts:

Day to Day Use

There are 2 features in MS To Do that I’m using daily: My Day and Flagged emails.

My Day

In the mornings I have a recurring daily task to ā€œnudgeā€ me to start my day choosing what to focus on. I’ve tried having it on my calendar as a recurring event but over time it gets stale. It’s a quirk I have, I am more likely to act on something if I am able to ā€œcheck-offā€ things as done.

So I’ll add whatever I decide to work on into the built-in My Day list in MS To Do. The interesting thing about this list is that it resets everyday, so it becomes a daily exercise for me to reflect and plan what I want to focus on.

Flagged emails

Another feature I’m enjoying is sending actionable email items to MS To Do from my email inbox. It’s an option that can be turned on/off.

If turned on, the messages in Outlook that are flagged will show up on the ā€œFlagged emailā€ smart list on MS To Do. From there, I’ll process it and assign a next action context. In Outlook I will archive the email, since there will be a link in MS To Do to open the original email. If it's an email I want to have quick reference to, I move it to my @Action Support folder in Outlook.

It seems that sending actionable emails to MS To Do makes me spend less time in my email Inbox. I'm finding it better to have ā€œactionablesā€ all in one place. I used to have an ā€œActionā€ folder in my email and sometimes things got forgotten in there.

So far…

… I’ve been enjoying the experience! I never realized how important visuals are to me. I absolutely love the MS To Do interface and the way I can customize it with emojis and colors/backgrounds. It’s one of those things that make me more engaged with my lists.

MS To Do is simple to use, it’s beautiful, it integrates with my calendars and work environment, so it seems like a perfect fit for me now.

Update June 2023

I’ve written an update to this setup, check it out here.

#Productivity #apps #MSTodo #GTD

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By Noisy Deadlines
Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.